To whom, for secret crimes, just vengeance owes
Deserved plagues, dreading their just desert,
Corrupted death by Paracelsian art,
Him to destroy . . .
Our arms, though ne'er so strong,
Will want the aid of his commanding tongue,
Which conquered more than Caesar."


DESCRIPTIONS OF VIRGINIA.--ROBERT BEVERLY, clerk of the Council of
Virginia, published in London in 1705 a _History and Present State of
Virginia_. This is today a readable account of the colony and its people in
the first part of the eighteenth century. This selection shows that in
those early days Virginians were noted for what has come to be known as
southern hospitality:--

"The inhabitants are very courteous to travellers, who need no other
recommendation, but the being human creatures. A stranger has no more to
do, but to inquire upon the road where any gentleman or good housekeeper
lives, and there he may depend upon being received with hospitality. This
good nature is so general among their people, that the gentry, when they
go abroad, order their principal servant to entertain all visitors with
everything the plantation affords. And the poor planters who have but one
bed, will very often sit up, or lie upon a form or couch all night, to
make room for a weary traveller to repose himself after his journey."

[Illustration: WILLIAM BYRD]

COLONEL WILLIAM BYRD (1674-1744), a wealthy Virginian, wrote a _History of
the Dividing Line run in the Year 1728_. He was commissioned by the